Things You'll Need:
- Time to read this and save the notes for future reference.
- Love of Barbies (or a friend who does!)
-
Step 1
If you are new to the world of Barbies, welcome! Here is the classic mistake that shows up in 99% of the "thrift stores" and other outlets where you may be digging around for that perfect barbie; the date on the doll reads "1966". You think you've found one of the first Barbie's ever made and happily hand over twenty bucks to the guy behind the counter. Don't. Please Don't. The date you will find on the bodies is the date that particular mold was manufactured. The majority of them will read 1966 or 1968 or some "vintage" date. If you take your treasure down to the local Wal-Mart or Alco etc and compare it to the boxed pretties on the shelves, you will see a striking resemblense... mostly because you have one of these ladies off the shelf that was most likely last seasons' "new" Barbie and has been stripped and styled by your neighbor's six year old and tossed out in favor of a not naked doll. The only reason to buy a naked Barbie out of a box under a table or even on a shelf with a 20+ dollar tag on her ankle is if she is fully clothed and has original make up, original hair styling, and you can tell exactly which one she is. Naked Barbies are only good for redressing, re-rooting, and re-doing for the creatively inclined.
-
Step 2
Mistake Number Two: Buying every single Barbie that comes out. The first rule of collecting is this; YOU have to live with your collection. There is absolutely no guarantee that the items you buy today will sell tomorrow... so make sure what you buy is something you want to be looking at day in and day out for the next twenty years. If you are going to collect, find the collection that "speaks" to you. Barbie is variety, do you love the ball gown dressy dolls? The ones designed by high end designers? The ones designed by Mattel's own staff? The ones that follow pop culture themes? The ones that you can only get by mail order or through cookies or cream cakes boxes? The ones that are modeled after stars? The trends... the ethnic ones... midges, kens, skippers, allen, christie... Barbie has a HUGE extended family... there are some collections that focus solely on one member! Find the one that touches your heart and stick to that collection... so in ten years when you are admiring your Dolls of the World collection of Barbies, you won't be trying to view them past the fifteen other off shoots that are crowding your shelves.
-
Step 3
Mistake Number Three: The box! The box is a highly personal decision, but still affects your resell value to some degree. Sometimes it's the difference between good investment and giving it away later. Keep them unopened, no peeking inside! and keep them where they won't get dinged, or squished or torn. If you prefer to display the pretties out of the box, that's up to you, but it takes a Barbie that tugs pretty hard at someone's heart strings (or that last final one needed to comeplete a collection) to get them to pay up for a beauty not in a box. Some people get around this by buying TWO of everything.
-
Step 4
The Trick! Finding that one doll that has the resell value! This is the hardest part of all for collecting Barbies... and the reason you want to collect only the dolls that you can live with. Finding the one, is very hard. It is impossible to predict what catches fire and is hard to find and highly in demand.... to predict what will stay in the hearts of a generation so that they are looking to replace their loved Barbie with one from your collection in twenty years.... to predict what is the bankable doll from the one that your grandkids will get to rip out of the box to play with later. Look for ones that tie in with something that this generation identifies with... because in the end, isn't that what we're hunting and collecting in life? Treasured memories and feelings that objects invoke when we finally finish the hunt and bring home that prize?
